[Nel] Snowballs Data & CVS

[Vincent Archer]

Some quick answers, before we go further in detail.

According to Zane:
> Would it be possible to move the snowballs data into the CVS tree?  I'm
> keeping current with the CVS updates and evidentally some changes made to
> NeL or the client/server portion have rendered the data package offered on
> the website obsolete.

Hmmm, that's odd. It shouldn't have, but we'll look at it.

> Have you all looked at using sourceforge for your public CVS front end?  The
> site can be designed to look exactly like your current site (but I believe
> would require a sourceforge graphic and link somewhere on the page) and
> offers all the services you currently offer as well as more bandwidth and
> will spare you from further slashdot type outages (at least to some degree
> :).

We could use Slashdot, yes. In fact, there's a NeL project registered
on it "in case". Why aren't we using Sourceforge? Well, apart from the
current rumors of source forge growing beyond its possibilities of support,
we'd lose some of the control we have on the current public system. It's
a relatively gray area, and one on which we aren't saying much, except,
"well, right now we aren't".

> I've read back through the mailing list archives and understand that you're
> using a plugin to 3DSMax to create NeL objects.  Will you be releasing this
> any time soon?  I know a few people that are not 3D developers (unable to
> write a plugin) but would be interested in starting to build content.  I'm
> curious why you haven't released it already?  (Yes, I'm nosy :)

License issues. Basically, we have a problem releasing a free plugin to
a commercial non-source software package. The GPL poses a lot of problems
(we can't give you a GPLed 3DSmax, can we?), and we haven't a satisfying
license yet that allows to get as close to GPL as we can, while respecting
the license from 3DS.

> What about design documents for NeL?  You have a lot of auto-generated

No comment :)

We know we should :)

> Are you actually interested in other developers making major contributions
> to this project pre-production or are you more interested in just offering
> your work to the community?

Both. Altough we haven't specifically announced things, we have a specific
program and are opening CVS commit privileges to specific people, so we
are looking for contributions, at all levels (from simple bug fixes to
whole features).

We don't guarantee we'll use everything, but if it "fits" within the
NeL scope, we'll put it in, even if we don't use it ourselves (yet).

-- 
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer@nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!